Water

Last night I watched Water, and it's been in my mind all day. The story follows Chuyia, widowed at 7, and brought to Varanasi to live in a house of widows, the rest of them much older. ( spoiler alert )

I'd known of how widows had been (still are?) dumped in cities not necessarily near where they had lived from reading Homeless Bird (Gloria Whelan). I hadn't realized just how many taboos there are on widows. At the time the movie is set (Ghandi has been released from prison, British still rule), it seemed that widows relied on begging, not working at all (except, apparently, the situation above...), though in the book (set later, after independence) widows were more expected to work. And widows were seen as pollution. And not allowed fried foods (?). Pretty much, their lives in the world ended when their husbands died, if they weren't wanted by the rest of the family. And if the husband died soon after marriage, the husband's family generally didn't want another mouth to feed, someone who wasn't really 'theirs'. Though this was still better than suttee...

I still don't know why the system of marrying off girls so young started. It means the birth family no longer has to support her, though they've had the big up-front cost of a dowry, and she's raised in the husband's home, likely ruled over by her mother-in-law. It's so strange to me that girls are married off so young. (And yes, I know that it happens today, too. And not only in India, either.)

I should appreciate my luck in having been born into a society where I can be who I choose to be more often.

Added bonus: John Abraham was very nice to look upon as Narayan.